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The Australian Centre for Field Robotics: Leading the Way in Robotics Research

One of the leading robotics labs is located at University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR), which hosts one of the world’s largest outdoor robotics research labs. The researchers at ACFR work with robots in many different environments, ranging from ground-based robots to flying robots to underwater robots, all the way to robots that are working in social spaces.

Most of the robots that they work with are completely autonomous: using a wide range of sensors to detect location and local conditions, coupled with advanced algorithms that allow them to make decisions as to where they should go and what they should do. Applications range from driverless vehicles, flying robots, self-reconfiguring robots (transformers) and custom designed agricultural robots that can detect and mitigate weeds and other pests.

In the first part of this Future Tech interview with Dr Robert Fitch, a senior research fellow specialising in robot motion planning, we talk about the challenges in designing autonomous robots, self-reconfiguring robots, social robots and the genesis of the Google Car.

Ericsson: A Future with Connected Cars, 5G, Virtualisation and Deep Analytics

The automotive industry is investing heavily in the integration of mobile network operating systems into cars, along with an increasing variety of apps, to do things like finding parking spots, along with mobile phone integration. Ultimately, this is leading to a future where connected cars may do away with the need for a human driver, and dedicated parking spots will become a relic of the past, replaced with automated valet parking. And where the family car morphs into a mobile office so owners can make the most of their time on the road.

In this Future Tech interview, we’re continuing our discussion with Håkan Eriksson, the CEO of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand — exploring a future with connected cars, network virtualisation, and deep analytics that transform information into actionable knowledge.

Ericsson: Within the next Decade Everything will be Connected

Imagine a future where your mailbox has morphed into a combination of mailbox and fridge, ready for automatic delivery of your favourite foods as soon as your smart refrigerator detects that you’re running low on a household staple by scanning the RFID tags on your food packages — and a little drone flies it to your front door, and has the right signal to unlock your “chillbox.” Where everything that’s manufactured has an IPv6 address, and you never again lose socks, or anything else for that matter. And, where shopping centres have smart tiles that help you figure out where you left your phone.

In this Future Tech interview, we’re speaking with Håkan Eriksson, the CEO of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand — exploring a future with ubiquitous connectivity.

Future Tech 2024: Your Roadmap To New Telecom Industry Opportunities

Wearable, implantable and ingestible devices, massive changes in the automotive sector, sensor networks, new form factors for phones and tablets, home automation, drones, the Internet of Things, cloud services, security and privacy, and the latest telecom technologies may seem loosely connected.

But if you look more closely, you’ll see a common pattern of communications technologies underpinning new markets, along with new service and product segments targeted at both consumer and business customers. Future service opportunities are already unfolding, you just need to know where to look.

One way to do so comes from spotting technologies and trends early, and translating them in to viable business strategies.

Ninja Blocks: Looking at the Future of Home Automation

The next stage of home automation is predictive intelligence — Ninja Blocks is working to build a sophisticated machine, that will be able to decide or know when something is out of order, or when something should happen. For instance, turning lights on or off in the middle of the night at a luminosity that’s in accordance with an individual family member’s preference.

Ninja Blocks wants to build the home of the Jetsons, an actual smart home — an environment that can make intelligent decisions, ask if it’s unsure, use predictive algorithms and learn from experience.

In Part 2 of our Future Tech interview with Daniel Friedman, the CEO of Ninja Blocks, we continue our discussion about the home of the future.

Ninja Blocks: Crowd Sourcing Home Automation

Designing an intelligent home is something that’s been talked about in technology circles, and science fiction, for decades. With the ubiquity of mobile technology, WiFi connectivity and the emerging Internet of Things this dream is finally becoming a reality.

Ninja Blocks is an innovative start-up company that’s working to design products that control a home environment with software.

In this Future Tech interview, we’re speaking with Daniel Friedman, the CEO of Ninja Blocks about their product design process, and the role that Kickstarter played in fundraising and product definition.

Bell Labs: Harnessing the Internet of Things into a Digital Sixth Sense

It’s not every day that one gets to interview the head of what is arguably the world’s top scientific research lab, much less gain an exclusive worldwide first look at a development that has the potential to impact every human on the planet.

In this Future Tech interview, we’re speaking with Dr Marcus Weldon, the President of Bell Labs (and Corporate CTO at Alcatel-Lucent) about a new FutureX Project that is designed to couple knowledge, objects and people in new and unique ways — creating a personal digital assistant / digital avatar / digital sixth sense — that knows what you need, when you need it, by connecting you to those things and monitoring how you use them. You get your network essentially optimising your life for you, not just optimising your connectivity. And, it has massive business implications too.

This is straight out of a sci-fi book, and Marcus expects that it will be available as a service within 5 years!

Telecom Networks in 2024: Inside Carrier Core Networks, Encryption, and Networking in Outer Space

In this Part 2 of this Future Tech interview, we’re continuing our discussion with Dr Paul Brooks from Layer 10 Advisory.

We look at the increasing dominance of VoIP in telecom core networks where at least 60 percent of all voice traffic is already carried in VoIP format, and examine how mobile voice networks are also moving to packet format as VoLTE rolls out. Researchers, including Paul, are already working on interplanetary networks, which we also discuss — as well as terrestrial uses for delay tolerant networking.

Data security issues are another important aspect of networking, and we talk about the increasing need for encryption.

Telecom Networks in 2024: The Technologies, Applications and Services Driving the Need for Speed

In this Future Tech interview, we’re speaking with Dr Paul Brooks from Layer 10 Advisory, one of Australia’s most respected carrier network architects, and a driving force behind many of the technical standard working groups within the Communications Alliance.

In this article, we explore the technologies, applications and services driving the need for speed in carrier networks.

Future Tech 2024: An Interview with Christine Ekman – Mobile Pulse (Part 2)

In Part 2 of this Future Tech interview, we’re speaking with Christine Ekman (Mobile Pulse) about mobile connectivity in 2024, drone-based wireless networks, technology innovation and VC technology investments.